5 minute read
Student Achievements
VsB Team ranked second in the aspen institute international mBa Case Competition
Four mBa sTuDENTs WoN sECoND PlaCE iN ThE asPEN Institute Business & Society International MBA Case Competition and took home a prize of $10,000.
“The Aspen Case Competition was the absolute greatest part of my entire MBA experience. It is an incredible feeling to know that we can compete with the top MBA schools in the world,” says ChrisTy CalaBro MBA ’11.
Calabro, along with fellow MBA students EVaN Taylor MBA ’14, JuDy uNDErWooD MBA ’11, and ulaNa ChaBoN MBA ’11, competed against six other teams during the first round, which was held on campus, and then went on to face the top teams from 24 other universities nationwide in the second round of the case competition.
After being notified that they were one of the top five finalists, the four students had one week to convert their submission into a PowerPoint presentation, which they delivered to a panel of judges in new York City. “Completing this case study and presenting our recommendations was a tremendous amount of work,” says Calabro, “but it was so rewarding, and the support we received along the way from VSB was overwhelming. Our goal as a team was to deliver the best presentation we could, and we were so proud of our performance. To hear our names called as the
Aspen Institute International MBA Case Competition second place winners Evan Taylor MBA ’14, Judy Underwood MBA ’11, Ulana Chabon MBA ’11, and Christy Calabro MBA ’11
second place team was just the icing on the cake. That was a moment I will never forget.”
The competition challenges participants to analyze a case study and come up with corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives for a major organization, encouraging students to be innovative while taking into consideration corporate profitability and environmental, social, and ethical issues.
Kayleigh Huang VSB ’12 and Daniel Newell VSB ’13 accept the Net Impact Chapter of the Year award on behalf of Business Without Borders.
Business Without Borders Named Chapter of the year
One year after its first meeting, VSB’s Business Without Borders (BWB) student group was named Net Impact Chapter of the Year for 2010. VSB students accepted the prestigious award at the Net Impact Conference, held at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. VSB’s BWB community is one of 48 Net Impact undergraduate chapters in the United States.
Net Impact, which has more than 260 chapters worldwide, is an organization for professionals, graduate students, and undergraduates that aims to use business to create a socially and environmentally sustainable world.
The mission of BWB is to provide a platform where business students can utilize knowledge from their classroom experience and apply it to the real world. The club organizes special events, recruits visiting speakers, and creates opportunities for students to work both locally and internationally using their business acumen to address social needs.
“We’re thrilled and proud to have won the Net Impact Chapter of the Year Award,” says roBErT haNloN VSB ’11,
co-president of BWB. “It’s a testament to the hard work of our members. This recognition affirms VSB’s strong support of corporate social responsibility.”
“The award highlights the progress our organization has made during its first year. We are very excited to celebrate this achievement and we are also looking to further improve upon our work. We hope that the foundation our organization has built will help stress the importance of sustainable and socially responsible business on Villanova’s campus,” adds co-president DErEk FErGusoN VSB ’11.
BWB was recognized for its international work in Nicaragua, Kenya, and the Philippines, where the group engaged in international development projects. Locally, they have been collaborating with the IRS and a nonprofit to help low income clients with tax returns. Additionally, the group, in collaboration with the Center for Global Leadership and the International Business Society, brought TOM’s Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie to campus.
Taussig award to VsB student
kEllEy BErGsma VSB ’09, MSF ’11 received the Frank W. Taussig Article Award for her paper, “Does Offering Microsavings Make Sense for Microfinance Institutions?” The award, sponsored by Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE), the international honor society for economics, is presented to an undergraduate student or recent graduate with the year’s best article on economics.
Bergsma’s paper was submitted for the Taussig Award after she won the Adam Smith Contest, the student research paper competition held annually by VSB’s Department of Economics & Statistics.
Bergsma claimed the first place prize in the 2010 Adam Smith Contest and won $2000. For winning the Taussig Award, she received a cash prize of $1000 and an opportunity to publish the article in The American Economist, the official journal of ODE. As part of the award, the Villanova chapter of ODE received $200, which was donated to Bergsma’s favorite microfinance organization, Opportunity International.
Bergsma is the third Villanova student to win the Taussig award in recent history.
msF students advance in Competition
FiVE masTEr oF sCiENCE iN FiNaNCE sTuDENTs WoN the local segment of the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge and are advancing to compete in the regional level of the competition. William alBErTus MSF ’11, JamEs kEaNE MSF ’11, aroN hooks MSF ’11, roBErT siNGEr MSF ’11, and miChaEl maCk MSF ’11 represented VSB in the CFA Society of Philadelphia’s challenge and beat out teams from five other schools.
For the competition, the teams researched urban Outfitters, Inc., a publicly traded company, and wrote an equity research report that complied with the standard of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. Four teams were invited to present their findings to a panel of three experts. After announcing the Villanova group as the Philadelphia winners, the judges and event coordinators took them out to dinner, during which the students received feedback on their presentation, learned about the next stage of the challenge, and networked with industry professionals.
As local champions, these MSF students will move on to the regional competition in the Americas, which will culminate in a global finale competition. “The Global IRC Challenge was the perfect platform to apply the qualitative analysis and
The MSF team of Aron Hooks, Robert Singer, Michael Mack, James Keane, and William Albertus win the Philadelphia competition.
valuation skills developed during our coursework in the MSF program, and it was an exciting, fun way to finish the year,” says Albertus. “We’ve had an excellent experience throughout the entire process.”
